SOTU: Not even trying anymore

Aides hint of a major pronouncement on energy in the speech before Congress and the nation Tuesday night. Yet the president is expected to take a predictable path, urging expanded use of ethanol in gasoline, more research into cleaner burning coal and on gas-electric “hybrid” cars, and greater nuclear energy.

In other words, nothing new. No new initiatives, except for payoffs to the ethanol lobby, touting the hybrid vehicles that he ridiculed Al Gore about in 2000, and nuclear energy, which might actually be an energy drain because of all the energy it requires to produce it, deliver it and keep it safe. Nothing like higher CAFE standards. Nothing like a carbon tax: Bush only believes in higher taxes when it is taxing working peoples’ health care benefits.

No doubt the Administration has several hidden “initiatives” designed to drag the country even deeper into the muck, but in terms of explicit policy, I don’t think they are even trying anymore.